Essential TNG Season 2.

Daniel, Darren and Phillip continue the proud Trek.fm "essential" tradition of breaking down a season of their favorite series, sorting through which episodes should be officially kept. The trio begins, reluctantly, with "The Child" and makes their way through Next Gen's too short a season, all the way to "Shades of Grey." There are quite a few 2-1 votes for whether an episode is considered "essential" in this installment - that is, whether it embodies the spirit of TNG or sets up much-needed elements for later Next Gen or later parts of the subsequent Trek series. Earl Grey discusses when Lwaxana Troi should "officially" show up, whether "Q Who?" should be "very essential" or "most essential," and if Worf's "two bridges?!?!" must officially be retired.

Season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation suffered from a series of writer strikes and bad plots, along with captivating stories ("The Measure of a Man"), new characters (e.g., Guinan and Dr. Pulaski), and promotions for our crew. Join Earl Grey as they hold up season two to the "essential" winnowing process.

First Contact Retrospective. November 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of First Contact, and the new Earl Grey team reflects on their experiences with the movie in 1996, and examine its legacy is in 2016.

Crew Finale. Daniel, Darren, and Phillip disembark from Earl Grey in their last episode, recounting memorable moments from three years of adventures. They give thanks to listeners and those who made the show possible, as well as sending best wishes to the next hosts to take their stations.

Super BridgeMates STLV. Phillip, Daniel, and Darren recount their adventures at Star Trek Las Vegas - 50th Anniversary Convention. This includes the much-anticipated #SuperBridgeMates, featuring Team Free Enterprise, Team Lizard Babies, and the Council of Mistresses.

Elementary Dear Data Rewrite. Live together at Star Trek Las Vegas in room 17001 Daniel, Darren & Phillip are joined by Charlynn and Tristan to rewrite the episode Elementary Dear Data to take place on the holodeck of the USS Voyager.

Enduring Popularity of TNG. For three years, Earl Grey has discussed their love for Next Gen; in this episode Phillip, Darren, and Daniel do a roundtable discussion about why this series has endured for almost 30 years.

Holodeck Tools. Next Gen features many "broken holodeck" stories, but Darren, Daniel and Phillip discuss how the show uses the Holodeck as a tool in the workplace and changes how people live in the 24th Century.

TNG Two Parters. The Best of Both Worlds was one of the most pivotal cliff-hanger stories in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This week Darren, Daniel and Phillip discuss all 8 two part episodes and compare their strong half to weak half ratios.

TNG Fan Film. Fan productions have focused on TOS, ENT, & post-VOY/NEM, but none have been set during the seven-year season of TNG. Phillip, Daniel, and Darren explore this "missing link" in Trek fan films.

TNG Season Zero Prequel. Daniel, Darren, and Phillip imagine prequel stories for our favorite characters before "Encounter at Farpoint." The trio creates episodes (in comic book form) that fill in back stories and lead up to everyone joining the Enterprise-D.

"Never Happened" Episodes. Next Gen features several episodes outside of "normal" reality or which "reset" everything at the end. Phillip, Daniel, and Darren debate the idea of stories that "never happened."

The Animated Next Generation. The Earl Grey crew is joined by Aaron Harvey from Saturday Morning Trek. Laugh along with a roundtable pitch session for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Animated Series. Only on UPN Kids.